Lucasarts announced the release of its roller coaster/theme park building game, Thrillville, today. The game gives a new perspective to management simulator games, allowing players to tour and interact with their creations instead of just having a bird's-eye view. The game allows players to customize their own amusement-park creation, interact with guests like never before, and build and hop into their own roller coasters and other rides. It also lets players race on go-kart tracks they construct, play miniature golf on courses they design, and build roller coasters so high, fast and furious they couldn’t exist in the real world. A multiplayer feature allows up to four friends or family members to play a plethora of mini-games, from bumper cars to arcade action. Thrillville is available for Playstation 2, PSP and Xbox for $39.99 USD and is rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and up. For full information on Thrillville, you can check out http://www.thrillvillegame.com/ .

IDG Entertainment announced the launch of its new website, GameProFamily.com, today. The website is meant to help parents of young gamers become informed about making smart game buying decisions. The goal of GameProFamily.com is to provide timely and authoritative facts that clearly define the contents of many questionable games that are on the market today or are soon to be released. Three unique perspectives provide insight into each game covered and deliver enough information to help parents make smart game purchasing decisions based on their own criteria for raising their children. Dad’s Watch: Examines the level of violence, sex, mature language, and drugs in a game and looks at its real-world value and potential impact on a child. Mom’s Take: Looks at any social or psychological concerns with a game and addresses the questions: Will this add to a child’s academic achievements, or increase/decrease physical activity? The Kid’s Pitch: Provides insight into what your child may tell you about the game to try to persuade you to buy it for them. Also included is a PlaySmart descriptor that provides additional insight into the ESRB rating for a particular game and why it was rated the way it was. One of the most innovative features of GameProFamily.com is a list of Alternate Picks for each title reviewed. If a parent chooses not to buy the game in question they can select an alternate title from this list and feel confident that it will include much of the same entertainment value without the content parents may have deemed inappropriate. The only thing left for IDG to do to make sure parents are informed is market the site properly. The more people hear about the site the better, because we'd all like to see more parents making informed decisions about the games they buy for their children. For more information, you can check out the website at www.gameprofamily.com .

EA and Warner Bros. Entertainment announced today that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is in development. The game is set to release in July, in conjunction with the release of the movie. “Working with EA, we look forward to offering fans the most authentic Harry Potter game to date, one which captu res the compelling story of the fiction and high visual quality of the movie,” said Jason Hall, Senior Vice President of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. “After reading the book and seeing the film, fans will be able to take advantage of the complete interactive experience with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix game.” EA says it is reaching for a close and synergistic relationship between book, film and video game, which will be “more defined” than in any of the previous games. Players will be able to explore the many key locations within Hogwarts in minute detail, each one a visual match to its film equivalent, while being engrossed in the thrilling adventures outlined in the rich narrative of the book. The game is in development for all consoles, handhelds and PC.

TigerDirect.com and TigerDirect.ca are getting in on the PS3 hype action, announcing a new contest today. The company will be offering five customers the chance to win a Playstation 3. Oddly, the contest, which runs until the 26^th, actually started on the Playstation 3's launch day, but they only anno unced it today. Participants are automatically entered via any purchase on TigerDirect.com, or by visiting TigerDirect.com and completing all requested sweepstakes information. A total of five Sony PlayStation 3’s with 60GB Hard Drives will be given away and one winner will be selected in a random drawing every other business day for 10 days from among all entries received the prior two days. The winner's names will be posted on TigerDirect.com for 24 hour, therefore entrants will have to check daily to see if they have been selected as a winner. Although no purchase is necessary to enter, every purchase on TigerDirect.com qualifies customers for a chance to win. Good luck to all of you, and remember that if you're Canadian, it's probably best to enter the contest from the .ca site.

More of today's game releases

Disney's Chicken Little: Ace in Action for PS2 and Nintendo DS - $29.99 USD/$34.99 or $39.99 CAD – A Wii version will also be available next month.

Activision's Harley Davidson: Race to the Rally for Playstation 2 - $29.99 USD – A PC version will also be available November 28^th.

Lucasarts' Star Wars: Best of PC for, what else, PC - $39.99 USD/$49.99 CAD

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